Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, has made its TweetDeck exclusive to paying subscribers. TweetDeck, which X acquired in 2011 for $40 million, is a popular tool that allows users to track multiple Twitter lists and trends.
In early July, Twitter Support announced that you'd need to pay to use TweetDeck in 30 days. It said users will need a Verified account. Furthermore, today, many users reported being unable to access TweetDeck without an X Blue verification subscription.
The change means news organizations, journalists, researchers, and social media consultants who relied on TweetDeck to monitor X will now have to pay to continue using it.
welp tweetdeck finally went bye-bye for me and this popped up and lmao no. pic.twitter.com/z2sWXz18nx
— russ bengtson (@russbengtson) August 15, 2023
Under Musk, X has been pushing its Blue subscription by packing features beyond just the verification checkmark. Blue subscribers can now post longer text and videos, see 50% fewer ads, get priority ranking for their replies, mentions, and searches, access article bypass paywalls, receive a "prioritized content" tag, and have the ability to share ad revenue with X.
However, the exclusivity of TweetDeck for paying users is likely to upset many users who aren't interested in the other perks of Blue. TweetDeck felt neglected for the past few years, and its Windows app was even shut down in 2016. Tests of a new TweetDeck version began in 2021 but have yet to launch fully.
Anyone using TweetDeck will now be migrated to the newer TweetDeck preview. According to an X employee, the company is now "working on migrating everyone to the preview version". Anyone can chime in with feedback on a new Twitter community for TweetDeck.
On the other hand, the TweetDeck app is undergoing a name change as Elon Musk pushes Twitter's rebranding to X. With Musk's decision, it will now be called XPro.
The move to make TweetDeck paid-only mirrors other recent changes at X intended to boost subscriber numbers and revenue. However, it remains to be seen whether limiting access to the tweet tracking tool will drive more users to pay up or frustrate them.
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